Tata Sons get bigger stake in retail arm Trent

Trent has raised over Rs 1000 crores through preferential allotment of shares to its promoter Tata Sons. With this Tata Sons’ stake in Trent has increased to 32.45 per cent. Tata Sons earlier held a 27.74 per cent stake in its retail arm.

Trent, Tatas’ retail arm, is witnessing positive traction for its lifestyle retail concepts and consequently pursuing a substantially accelerated growth program across the Westside, Zudio and Star formats. Established in 1998 and part of the Tata group, Trent operates Westside, one of India’s largest and fastest growing retail chains; Star Bazaar, a hypermarket chain, and Landmark a family entertainment format store.

Trent has chosen to be in just a few cities because it feels building a customer brand is easier if it is present in a small number of cities. Trent plans to open 50 stores in Hyderabad in the next two or three years, apart from setting up a distribution centre. The expansion is part of the 200 stores planned for Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Trent Hypermarket is 50:50 joint venture between Tata and British retailer Tesco. Trent operates over 140 Westside stores selling its own branded fashion apparel and 20 Zudio stores across 12 cities retailing fashion products. While under Star, it operates 26 supermarkets and ten hypermarkets selling fresh food and grocery.